The Bosque

Last Friday Ben and I went to NABLA, which is a party the school has a few times a semester for upperclassmen and tutors to eat and get drunk together in the afternoon. I chose sparkling water. I am still having a very difficult time consuming any kind of alcohol other than wine and champagne since my birthday last year. Last year, on Christmas Eve, I am about to go to sleep in Ben and Julie's attic when Ross Margulies calls me and convinces me that we HAVE to celebrate our 21st birthday together. We were born on the same day in the same hospital..blah, blah, etc, etc, so I went out with Ross and friends (all Jewish, of course) who were willing to go to the Short North for a 21st birthday party at 11pm on Christmas Eve, and we did shots of Tequila. NOT A GOOD IDEA. Abby and Jared, (other Margulies') as well as my friend Simone, (who I hadn't seen for about two years) took care of me in my drunken misery and I ended up tucked into Molly's (another Margulies) bed and waking up at 7am, Christmas morning, walking back to Stanwood in the rain, and not exactly in the Christmas spirit. To add insult to serious injury, I had done a very poor job of planning Christmas food, and so I forced Dad to drive me around looking for someplace that was open (turns out, Starbucks is) so that I could get some food in my stomach. Thanks, Dad. The true result of this escapade was that I haven't been able to enjoy a margerita or much of anything since last Christmas, and so haven't had the desire to use the cocktail shaker Brad bought me. So I wasn't drinking anything at NABLA. My apologies, by the way, to my older siblings, who didn't want to hear about that AT ALL. Mandy, I never want to hear about what you get up to.
So, we were at NABLA and I was busy staining my fingers with pomegranate seeds, talking to a friend who is in an ecology precept. Her precept was taking a field trip that night to Bosque del Apache, which is a big wetland about two hours South of Santa Fe, to watch thousands of snow geese take off at 6:40 the next morning. I thought, "Cool. I just saw Winged Migration. I want to see thousands of snow geese take off." I also thought, "Cool. Water." (Because there is less standing water in New Mexico than any other state in the U.S.) So, a half hour later, my friend and I had convinced Ben to camp at an RV park and wake up and look at the birds. Another half hour later, Ben and I had all of our stuff loaded in the car, went to Whole Foods to buy some snacks, and were driving South. It was dark, so we didn't see much on the drive down, but we had a good time driving and then setting up our crazy tent that we'd rented from the Student Activities Center, which consisted of a pole that you stick in the middle of the tent to hold it up, and a tarp to put underneath the tent. We held the corners down with big rocks, because there were no stakes.
We were also camping with a couple of friends, and a random townie/St. John's alumnus, who was a friend of one of these friends. So we built a fire in the desert (smaaaart) and sat huddled around it (I was especially huddled) trying to keep warm. It was cold. Cold. Cold. I can't say it enough. Cold. At 1am, the fire wasn't doing it for me anymore, so I tried to get into the tent, but was so cold that I needed Ben's help to zip me into my bag and put extra layers on. Ben's great, by the way. He's good at telling scary stories. He is good at setting up ridiculous tents. He's good at packing lots of extra layers so his whiny girlfriend will be warm... The list goes on. Anyway, I was actually freezing the whole night but that was because I refused to follow his advice and insisted instead on staying, completely still, huddled in my sleeping bag. I did a lot of huddling. Finally it was 6am, so we got all of our stuff put back in the car and drove to the Bosque.
I thought that this was like a New Mexico secret, so imagine my surprise when we arrive (at 6:20!!!) and there is already a dock full of crazy nature/bird devotees with their SLRs and crazy 24in. lenses all set up on enormous tripods. I sheepishly pulled out mom's camera (even with the big lense on, it looked puny- and it wasn't even digital!) and began looking out on the Bosque. There were shovel ducks, coots, sandhill cranes, Canada geese, and lots and lots of snow geese. Before I knew it, the snow geese started squawking and all at once, they took off over our heads. It was really beautiful, and you'd think that this would be where the story ends, and it would have been except for Ben, who turned into NATURE MAN and took two and half rolls of film of all of the birds. Cute. He had a really good time, and I did too except that I was like, "Brrr..." after an hour. So we went home, and I spent the rest of the weekend recovering from the physical trauma of the cold. If I had a digital camera, like the nature people, I would have a picture to post, but instead you'll just have to use your imagination for a couple of weeks, until I get my film developed.